"A household located in north London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally overlook the wording "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important element of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been sent in since the unnamed family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice in the media, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of early doubt, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then set in".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is rather osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to instil.
He explained the tutor had to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been raised knowing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can function as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can in some way transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially English tutor from infancy will not instantly achieve the result they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
